Daryl Hall and John Oates - H₂O (1982) [1987, Reissue]

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Daryl Hall and John Oates - H₂O (1982) [1987, Reissue]

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Daryl Hall and John Oates - H₂O (1982) [1987, Reissue]

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"H₂O" is the 11th studio album by American pop music duo Hall & Oates. The album was released on October 4, 1982, by RCA Records. It featured three Top 10 US singles, one being "Maneater", which was the biggest hit of their career, spending four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album title is a play on the chemical formula for water, where "H" is for Hall and "O" is for Oates. "H₂O" is certified double Platinum by the RIAA with sales of over two million copies.

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Daryl Hall and John Oates - H₂O (1982) [1987, Reissue]

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Private Eyes solidified Hall & Oates' status as one of the most popular acts in America in the early '80s, and with 1982's H₂O, they capitalized on its success, delivering an album that turned out to be bigger than its predecessor, as it climbed higher on the charts and launched three Top Ten singles with "Maneater," "One on One," and "Family Man." Bigger isn't necessarily better, though, and in comparison to the glistening pop of Private Eyes, H₂O pales somewhat, coming across as a little too serious, with its ambitions just being a little too evident. Take the claustrophobic, paranoid "Family Man" covering an art rocker like Mike Oldfield suggests a far different agenda than crafting a tribute to the Temptations, and while "Family Man" isn't as key to the album as "Looking for a Good Sign" was to Private Eyes, it does indicate the relatively somber tone of H₂O. Not that the album is a tortured dark night of the soul how could it be, when John Oates kicks off the second side with the proudly silly "Italian Girls"? but the production and performances are precise and deliberate, effectively muting the pop thrills that spilled over on its predecessor. Even if the album was recorded with Hall & Oates' touring band something that the duo and their co-producer Neil Kernon confirm in the excellent liner notes by Ken Sharp in the 2004 reissue H₂O feels as if most songs were cut to a click track, and are just slightly too polished for their own good; when the productions open up a bit, the band still sounds terrific, but they never are given the opportunity to sound as big and bold as they do on Private Eyes. This, coupled with a few drawn-out duds (such as the vaguely atmospheric "At Tension") means H₂O isn't quite as sharp and bracing as anything the duo had released since X-Static, and the fact that two of the best moments are huge hits the prowling "Maneater" and "One on One," perhaps the most seductive song Daryl Hall ever wrote may suggest that this is closer to singles-plus-filler than it really is. The best of the rest of H₂O reveals that Hall & Oates are at a near-peak in their creativity, writing tuneful, soulful fusions of pop, soul, and new wave. "Crime Pays" has an appealing robotic synth pop groove, "Art of Heartbreak" rides a tense guitar line to a great horn line on the chorus, the jealous anthem "Open All Night" slinks by on a stylized late-night groove, "Go Solo" hails back to Hall's arty Sacred Songs, and "Delayed Reaction" is a sterling piece of propulsive near-power pop. Even if they don't gel into an album as strong as Voices or Private Eyes, they're pretty terrific pop in their own right. They're not just evidence that Hall & Oates' popularity in the early '80s was earned and well deserved, they hold up very well decades after H₂O ruled the charts.

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Daryl Hall and John Oates - H₂O (1982) [1987, Reissue]

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Daryl Hall and John Oates - H₂O (1982) [1987, Reissue]

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